It is, in my opinion, the job of the Torah-im-Rock'n'roll ("TIR") leadership to be melamed zechus on average Orthodox Jews - the Jews who eat too much cholent and then pass out while their wives are left watching the children themselves all afternoon; the Jews who need to buy motorcycles for thrills; and the Jews who stand around talking through the hakafos on Simchas Torah.
But please, help me! How do I view these Jews favorably? You know - the ones who appear healthy all year long, but seem to suffer from assorted knee injuries, rotator cuff problems and asthma whenever people try to break out into dance?
Dancing is really amazing - its one of the only things you can't really fake. You can read words from a siddur, but not really daven. You can go to a shiur, and space out. But to dance - not simply shuffle - there is no way to fake that. Either you are filled with an energy when dancing, or not.
Maybe this is why the average TIR Jew simply skips out on hakafos. Because the emotion and energy are too much for him. If he were into it, he simply would no longer be a TIR Jew?
Thoughts?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Don't confuse TIRs with average Orthodox Jews.
ReplyDeleteTIRs know how to rock.
1. What's wrong with motorcycles?
ReplyDelete2. What's a rotator cuff?
3. How about Jews who don't eat too much chulent, but have too much herring and bourbon (if there is such a thing) on Shabbos morning and pass out because of that?
4. What if 1 or 2 of the people you observed is really struggling with faith, was inclined not to come to shul in the first place, but really pushed himself to come to shul on Simchas Torah anyway, even though he's pretty sure he doesn't even believe in any of this God or Judaism stuff, because he knows he has a small spark inside him somewhere that's telling him to go to shul anyway. Is it tragic if this Jew is sitting on the sidelines instead of dancing?
No such thing as too much herring and bourbon. But yes, the same rule applies there as well...
ReplyDeleteI hear point #4. But how can we be melamed zchus on all of the sideliners? Thats our job. TIR, I believe, is meant to be a modern day manifestation of R Levi Yitzchak miberdichev...